Cultivating Farmland in a Fluffy S-Rank Game – CH48

Chapter 48: Blacksmith

The little squirrels opened their mouths wide, one after another.

Do… massage?

They knew what massage was.

Take the three squirrel brothers, for example.

If they spent several consecutive days wielding pickaxes to dig holes, all their muscles would ache. In such cases, the three squirrels would pound each other.

They could directly make fists with their small paws and punch, or they could find a round stone to hold and use for pounding.

In short, after pounding themselves from head to toe like this, they would feel that the pain had lessened a lot.

This was the squirrels’ “massage.”

But why did the monster also need a massage? They didn’t dig holes.

Chu Jiu explained to them.

It turned out that this large monster called a “hippopotamus” did not originally live in the underground river basin but in the open ground.

Later, whether it got lost or for some other reason, it came to the underground river and lived there for a very, very long time.

Here, its activity space was insufficient, and it couldn’t get any sunlight, so its body became increasingly weak.

In this situation, even taking a small step or even just sitting still would make it feel very tired.

Just then, it accidentally discovered that the river water here would automatically form currents of different strengths!

Chu Jiu had just tested it with the bamboo pole, and the vibration felt from the bamboo pole inserted in different positions had obvious differences in strength. Some vibrations were gentle, while others were violent.

For humans or dwarf beastmen, this unpredictable water flow was actually a very dangerous undercurrent.

But for this monster, which was the size of a small hill, this undercurrent was simply like a small whirlpool in a jacuzzi, perfect for relieving fatigue!

The little squirrels didn’t know what a “jacuzzi” was, but that didn’t prevent them from understanding Chu Jiu’s meaning.

The three squirrel brothers nodded in unison, indicating that they understood.

The bow-tied squirrel was even more troubled:

“What to do?”

“How to… make it leave?”

Although they knew the reason, they couldn’t think of a solution at all.

Chu Jiu smiled and said, “There’s a way.”

“We’ll give it a massage in a different place.”

The little squirrels: “Huh?”

The squirrel carrying the axe: “Together, pound it?”

Chu Jiu shook his head, “No, no, I estimate ordinary strength won’t have any effect at all.”

“I, on the other hand, plan to give it ‘cupping’.”

Cupping is one of the massage techniques that has been popular in China for a long time. It essentially accelerates blood circulation through negative pressure, relieves muscle fatigue, and makes people feel relaxed and refreshed.

Although the hippopotamus was much larger than a human… Chu Jiu believed that the basic principles were the same.

For the dwarf beastmen, this concept was too new.

The bow-tied squirrel looked at Chu Jiu with a bit more suspicion in her eyes.

After all, everything this human had said so far was just his speculation.

What if this person was just talking nonsense?

However, the three brothers, who had once been saved by Chu Jiu, believed Chu Jiu’s words without hesitation.

They gestured frantically at the bow-tied squirrel, “Human, kind, doesn’t talk nonsense.”

They pointed to the little cat on Chu Jiu’s shoulder, “Human, powerful, very powerful!”

Finally, they said in unison, “They, can!”

Chu Jiu looked at the little squirrels’ actions, and a strange sense of disharmony arose in his heart.

Didn’t the little squirrels use “powerful” to describe Lu Qingyan before? Why did they specifically point at Little Can and say that?

And when they first saw Little Can just now, they blurted out Lu Qingyan’s “title.”

…A bit strange.

However, his thoughts were quickly interrupted.

Because the bow-tied squirrel jumped in front of him, her expression solemn:

“I, believe you.”

“But, there are rules.”

“I report to the chief. Chief, will decide.”

Since it was a rule of the dwarf beastman clan, Chu Jiu naturally had no objections.

*

Chu Jiu soon met the chief of the dwarf beastman clan near the plaza.

This chief was slightly taller than the other dwarf beastmen and also wore small clothes made of leather, but with an extra shiny golden belt around his waist.

To Chu Jiu’s surprise, when the chief came out to meet him, the three squirrel brothers enthusiastically pounced on him: “Uncle!”

So the three brothers were the chief’s relatives…

Chief Squirrel sternly waved his hand, meaning for the three little ones not to be presumptuous.

However, this couldn’t stop the three little ones from rushing over and rubbing against him.

As they rubbed, Chu Jiu noticed that Chief Squirrel’s own tail also began to wag—clearly, he didn’t dislike the three little ones’ affectionate behavior.

That’s right. Even fluffy creatures themselves probably couldn’t resist other fluffy creatures’ kisses and cuddles, right?

Finally, Chief Squirrel had to laboriously peel the three brothers off one by one and set them aside before continuing to put on a very serious face and asking Chu Jiu, “You, want to move monster?”

Chu Jiu then explained his plan.

After hearing Chu Jiu’s explanation, the chief shook his head, “Cannot.”

Chu Jiu was a little surprised and explained again, going into more detail.

The chief still shook his head, “Cannot.”

The three squirrel brothers on the side couldn’t help but become anxious, chattering non-stop, the general idea being how powerful Chu Jiu was and that he was trustworthy.

Chu Jiu pondered for a few seconds and continued to ask:

“May I ask, what are your concerns?”

“As far as I know, this water inlet is very important to the blacksmith shop, and the tools made by the blacksmith shop are used by the entire tribe, right?”

The chieftain waved his hand again to stop the chattering of the three brothers and explained to Chu Jiu in detail:

According to the chieftain’s understanding, this monster was huge, and once it struggled, the commotion would be terrifying.

Once this giant monster was completely angered and caused it to run around and bump into things underground, causing the underground river basin to collapse and sink, the underground city would also be affected, and perhaps some buildings would collapse, causing casualties among the tribe members.

Weighing the pros and cons, the chief would rather not move the monster for the time being and use other methods to supply water to the blacksmith shop.

After the chief finished speaking, the bow-tied squirrel jumped out and said, “Other methods, no good.”

In fact, the blacksmith shop had tried many other methods, but none could replace the water channel.

Chief Squirrel’s ears twitched.

It could be seen that this chieftain was now very troubled.

Chu Jiu thought for a moment and boldly said, “Chief, I understand your concerns.”

“Perhaps… during my ‘massage,’ the residents of the underground city could temporarily evacuate to the surface? This way, even if some buildings collapse by chance, there will be no casualties.”

“Besides, I will also add a backup plan to ensure the monster cannot move. Please see if this works—”

After hearing what Chu Jiu said this time, the chief pondered for a moment, first nodding, then hesitating slightly.

He said that he was willing to clear the underground city so that Chu Jiu could implement the first plan.

However, according to tradition, they only collectively left the underground city for the surface during large celebrations.

Without a suitable reason to directly notify the tribe members to leave, they would be suspicious and even panic.

Chu Jiu smiled, “Reason? The reason is easy to find.”

He took out a candy and placed it in front of the chieftain, “How about letting everyone go to the surface to taste ‘gems’?”

The chief’s small eyes widened instantly.

But he finally shook his head, “No, cannot. Cavities, will have bad teeth.”

Chu Jiu thought for a moment and casually made something, “Then, how about a ‘nut festival’?”

In his hand was a honey-coated, opened chestnut.

Smelling this aroma and seeing its oily sheen, all the squirrels present began to drool.

Many of them had not eaten candy. But almost everyone had eaten chestnuts.

Chu Jiu struck while the iron was hot, “I have many, many of these chestnuts.”

“You can take the uneaten chestnuts back as winter food.”

Chestnuts! Chestnuts emitting a rich fragrance! This was not a luxury item like “gems,” but a winter delicacy needed by every dwarf beastman, young and old!

You know, the “food storage” hadn’t been filled yet this year, and they were worried about whether there would be enough winter food!

The temptation was too strong.

The chief finally nodded, “Okay.”

“Nut festival.”

“I, organize tribe to go to surface.”

He finally looked up at Chu Jiu, with the stubbornness of a clan leader:

“Dwarf beastmen, don’t eat for free!”

“Human, I, use golden melon seeds, exchange for your nuts!”

With that, he took out a handful of golden, gold-made melon seeds from his golden belt and placed them in Chu Jiu’s hand.

Chu Jiu: …?!

I-it’s not like it can’t be done…

But why did he always feel… that he had inadvertently become a profiteer?

*

Chu Jiu spent two days preparing.

Two days later, the chief kept his word and cleared the underground city.

On the ground, the dwarf beastmen surrounded a large pot of steaming, fragrant honey-roasted chestnuts, singing and dancing in great joy.

In the underground city, besides Chu Jiu, there were the three brothers, the bow-tied squirrel, and the bow-tied squirrel’s master, the old blacksmith, who had volunteered to help.

Chu Jiu initially didn’t understand why the old blacksmith also wanted to stay, but the bow-tied squirrel told him that her master had said: since this dangerous thing was being done for the sake of the blacksmith shop, how could he go to the surface alone? The old blacksmith would stay in the forging workshop, and once the water supply was restored, he would open the furnace immediately to smelt and forge for that brave human.

Chu Jiu thought that these were truly righteous squirrels.

Soon, Chu Jiu, carrying several large-caliber pottery jars, led the little squirrels back to the underground river.

The pottery jars were specially fired according to Chu Jiu’s requirements.

Although there was enough bamboo in his backpack to be modified into bamboo tubes for cupping, considering the hippopotamus’s huge size, using large-caliber pottery jars was better.

The chieftain had readily asked the potters to make a large batch.

Chu Jiu’s plan was to take advantage of the hippopotamus’s habit of “liking to sleep when full” to give it cupping.

This way, when it woke up, it would find its body unusually relaxed.

At this time, Chu Jiu would then use delicious food to lure it out of the water and lead it to a small pond far away from the water inlet.

Luxuriant [Underground Dragon Beard Grass] and [Dark Light Star Leaf Grass] grew near this pond, both of which could become food for the hippopotamus.

More importantly, in the past two days, the dwarf beastmen had built a [Special Massage Chair] for the hippopotamus by the pond at the fastest speed—actually just smooth stones inlaid with large pebbles.

In this way, the effect of the hippopotamus rolling back and forth on this massage chair would be no less than the current “water flow massage.”

This was Chu Jiu’s Plan A.

His Plan B was to use a [Super-Sized Bug-Catching Net with Sticky Mud] to tie up the super-sized hippopotamus and then use multiple pulleys to save effort, forcibly dragging the hippopotamus away from the water inlet manually. In this case, the super-sized hippopotamus would not be able to struggle or cause any damage. This was also an important reason why Chu Jiu could persuade the chief.

However, once Plan B was used, the hippopotamus would probably never “silently protect the dwarf beastman clan” again.

Chu Jiu stood on the shore.

What he needed to do now was to ensure that the hippopotamus fell asleep in a “suitable posture.”

The hippopotamus’s sleeping postures were roughly divided into three types:

One was lying comfortably on the ground with its limbs spread out. Considering that this mutated hippopotamus was unwilling to leave the water at all, it obviously wouldn’t use this posture.

Another posture was sinking to the bottom of the water and then relying on instinct to come up to breathe every few minutes. This was the most likely posture for the mutated hippopotamus to take. But “cupping” couldn’t be done in the water, so this posture had to be avoided.

The last type was with its hind legs standing in the water, and its head and part of its body floating on the surface. If it was this posture, it would be the most convenient for Chu Jiu to “apply the cups.”
Chu Jiu didn’t plan to take his chances.

He planned to lure this giant hippopotamus baby to sleep in the way he needed.

He found the Wind Breath Fruit, tied the sieve filled with fresh fruits and vegetables underneath, and controlled the Wind Breath Fruit to lift the sieve to a height where the hippopotamus had to look up to eat.

The sieve slowly rose and drifted over.

As Chu Jiu had thought, although the hippopotamus was unwilling to leave the water inlet for food, it was very willing to stand in the water and look up, enjoying the food while enjoying the massage.

This time, the round sieve had a diameter of a full two meters.

Even for the super-sized hippopotamus, eating all the fruits and vegetables on it bite by bite would take quite a while.

Eating was actually quite tiring.

While eating, the hippopotamus began to feel sleepy.

After eating the last bite of cucumber, the hippopotamus drowsily closed its eyes.

The sleeping posture of this super-sized hippopotamus was exactly what Chu Jiu needed: standing on its hind legs, with half of its body floating!

Chu Jiu gave a look, and the three squirrel brothers and the bow-tied squirrel, led by Little Can, carried pottery jars almost as big as their bodies, jumping lightly and quickly onto the hippopotamus’s back.

Following what Chu Jiu had taught them, and led by Little Can, they lit the oil-soaked cotton, put it into the pottery jars, and quickly flipped them over, pressing them down onto the hippopotamus’s wide and thick back!

Each time a jar was applied, the hippopotamus would grunt.

But the hippopotamus didn’t wake up.

Before long, the super-sized hippopotamus became a super-sized porcupine hippopotamus.

While sleeping, the hippopotamus suddenly raised its head sharply and also let out a hoarse low moan, startling the squirrels on the shore into a shiver.

Little Can stood in front of the squirrels, looked up at the hippopotamus, and said in a calm voice, “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just dreaming.”

The squirrels were immediately relieved.

The squirrel carrying the axe couldn’t help but clasp its hands together, its small black button eyes full of admiration, “Beautiful! Powerful!”

Chu Jiu, witnessing this scene: …?

That strange sense of disharmony in his heart welled up again.

But he didn’t have time to think too much.

Because it was soon time to remove the cups.

Little Can led the little squirrels, gently wiggling the pottery jars, silently taking them off.

After removing the jars, the hippopotamus raised its head again, letting out a long series of “moo moo” sounds from its throat.

Chu Jiu noticed that the expression on its face was even more comfortable, as if it was having a very pleasant dream.

Another half an hour passed, and the hippopotamus’s eyelids slowly opened.

It subconsciously shook its head, sensed something, and its expression became a bit bewildered.

At this time, Chu Jiu had already placed another basket of fruits and vegetables on the shore. This time, the distance left required the hippopotamus to step onto the shore to reach it.

The hippopotamus, which hadn’t left the river water for a very, very long time, saw the fragrant fruits and vegetables in front of it and stretched forward as much as it could. It couldn’t reach them.

Did it have to go ashore?

It remembered how it had struggled to climb ashore two days ago, only to find its body so heavy that it couldn’t move its legs at all, forcing it to fall back into the water with a thud.

To be honest, it didn’t like eating aquatic plants; it preferred to feed on land.

But… only soaking in the water made its body feel a little comfortable.

Just as the hippopotamus was hesitating, it saw the human in front.

In the past two days, this human had brought many delicious things.

Although it couldn’t understand what he was saying, it could sense that this person had no malice.

Plus… there was always a fluffy creature beside him, so this must be a good person, right?

The human squatted in front of the fruits and vegetables, picked up a bunch of its favorite leafy greens, and beckoned to it, as if encouraging it to come over.

…Did it really have to go over there to eat?

The hippopotamus, not having been fed, felt a little aggrieved.

At this time, the human said something else, his voice very gentle.

The hippopotamus reluctantly moved towards the shore, thinking that it would definitely fall back in this time too—

Huh? Why did its body feel so much lighter?

No longer as heavy and immobile as it had been some time ago?

“Moo moo moo moo!” Discovering this, the hippopotamus wobbled onto the shore, dragging mud and water, walked to the sieve, and began to eat with its head buried in the food.

“It’s up, the monster, it’s up!” The little squirrels beside it were so surprised that they all grabbed their ears, probably testing if they were dreaming.

With the hippopotamus gone, the water inlet blocked by this behemoth began to gurgle and draw water. The cool, clean river water quickly flowed along the water channel towards the distant forging workshop.

The bow-tied squirrel jumped three times excitedly, turned around, and ran towards the forging workshop.

Over here, Chu Jiu strictly followed his Plan A, leading the hippopotamus to the pond, showing it the lush and fertile grass leaves there, and guiding it to lie down on the [Hippopotamus Special Massage Chair].

“Moo moo moo moo!” Having eaten and drunk its fill, and with a comfortable big chair to lie on, the hippopotamus let out an unprecedented happy hum.

Chu Jiu wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking: It’s done.

The big hippopotamus should like its new home very much.

And now the dwarf beastmen had also learned how to give it “cupping,” giving it a session from time to time should prevent it from going back to the bare, foodless water inlet to soak.

Chu Jiu breathed a sigh of relief, not leaving immediately but standing aside and quietly observing for a moment longer, just in case anything unexpected happened.

At this time, Little Can gently meowed, “That’s really good.”

“It’s as if you can communicate with it.”

Chu Jiu smiled and said, “I actually learned the tone and gestures that Kakaba uses to communicate with monsters, thinking I should try it no matter what.”

Although verbal communication was impossible, tone and actions could convey some intentions.

Coupled with continuous feeding and understanding the other party’s preferences and weaknesses through [Scan], he was able to successfully guide the big hippopotamus in a “communication-limited” situation.

At this time, the system prompt sounded:

[Host has met the condition ‘Clear the Water Inlet’!]
[The dwarf beastmen’s favorability towards the Host has greatly increased. Host has gained 1000 Development Points!]
[Host has met the hidden condition ‘So Sore’!]
[Host has obtained the ‘Elementary Traditional Therapy Center’ Recipe X1]
[Elementary Traditional Therapy Center: A place to relieve fatigue through physical methods!]
[Recipe Attributes: After this facility is built, it can directly generate ‘Honor Region Special Blueprints’ and can be reused in the ‘Honor Region’.]
[Recipe Usage Requirements: Development Points X1000, Stone X100, Wood X50, Fuel Materials X50, Spirit Beast X1]

Hmm? This recipe is pretty good!

It’s a recipe that can be used in Bean Village! It just so happens that there are so many elderly people in Bean Village, and as they get older, they will more or less have backaches and leg pains, right? Building this therapy center will definitely make them feel a lot more comfortable!

Chu Jiu pondered this and looked at the system prompt again—

“Clear the Water Inlet” and “So Sore” were rewards given as two different conditions.

In other words, if he had used Plan B to forcibly drive away the big hippopotamus, he would have only gotten 1000 Development Points at most and wouldn’t have gotten the therapy center recipe?
Using Plan A was indeed the right choice!

Just as he was feeling happy, the bow-tied squirrel came hopping over, “We, open! You, first customer!”

*

Although the bow-tied squirrel claimed that her master was very old, in Chu Jiu’s opinion, besides his white ears, this dwarf beastman looked no different from the other dwarf beastmen.

But his expression was indeed much more solemn than that of the other dwarf beastmen, even more so than the chieftain.

After seeing Chu Jiu, he nodded, “Thank you, human.”

With that, he stretched out his paw and opened it in front of Chu Jiu, waiting for Chu Jiu to give him something.

Chu Jiu, of course, hadn’t forgotten the rule the three squirrel brothers had mentioned, and immediately took out a handful of colorful candies and placed them in his paw, sincerely saying, “Is this enough?”

Unexpectedly, the old blacksmith looked shocked, “Gems?”

Chu Jiu blinked, “Yes. Didn’t you say that if a human wants to come here to forge things, they must hand over gems?”

The old blacksmith put the candy under his nose and sniffed it, then picked them up one by one and looked at them, ignoring Chu Jiu.

Chu Jiu was completely confused.

He looked at the bow-tied squirrel standing aside and whispered, “What’s going on?”

The bow-tied squirrel was also confused. She whispered to Chu Jiu that since no humans had come for a very, very long time, her master had never received any gems.

Her master had even sighed that perhaps those gems were gone forever and would never appear again.

When her master asked her to bring Chu Jiu over just now, he also instructed her: this human had done them a favor, and he would forge and smelt for him without charging a single coin, not mentioning gems at all.

Chu Jiu blinked, “Then why did he just hold out his hand…”

Bow-tied squirrel: “Give him, raw materials.”

Chu Jiu: …

Just then, Chu Jiu heard a low sob.

Following the sound, he saw the old blacksmith, who had just had a solemn expression, holding the gem candies in his hands and shedding tears with a “patta patta” sound.

Chu Jiu was naturally very surprised, and the bow-tied squirrel was even more frightened, quickly jumping over to ask what was wrong.

The old blacksmith finally stopped his tears, raised a purple candy, and choked out:
“This, the same as, my friend, gave me.”

“You, did you, see my friend?”